Having spent some time lurking on another forum, I've seen something done of which we can make use: interviews. I was thinking of reaching out to different 'personalities,' not all directly related to the occult, but whose work intersects with some of the things we discuss here. Provided that they agree, we could gather up questions, send them over, and post their responses in a thread.

I had three folks in mind, two of which did it on the other forum I mentioned and have a specialty in Eastern/Daoist systems--a topic which isn't touched upon too heavily here so could round things out a bit. If others found this idea to their liking, I was curious whom others would like to try and get a hold of for such a thing.

Also, I'm going to take this occasion to run the whole user tagging idea by folks again since the lack of a response really isn't an answer...

Cheers and Be Well

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

I dig the idea. I would even suggest perhaps expanding the idea into a potential OC podcast of some sort. There are plenty of occult "celebrities" that would probably agree to something like this but we could even interview each other. Could be fun and interesting. If it happens and evolves into a future podcast I recommend a more casual approach to conversation as opposed to the stiffness of a formal interview.

This sounds like a great idea SilentSeeker. I have a few folks I might be able to interview as well and I'm sure other members do as well.

I love the idea of interviewing other members. I think that this could be very interesting.

Cast Wide the Circle: Place for my musings and the occasional book review.The Art of Stealing Fire : My Online Magical Journal
Big mountain, wide river
There's an ancient pull
These tree trunks, these stream beds
Leave our bellies full
They sing out I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down
I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down

I love the ideas of both SilentSeeker and Nalyd here. I podcast could be really fun. I will do some research. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in interviewing someone from the occult community, I think we could create a thread and pin it to a particular section of the forum.

I love the ideas of both SilentSeeker and Nalyd here. I podcast could be really fun. I will do some research. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in interviewing someone from the occult community, I think we could create a thread and pin it to a particular section of the forum.

Glad folks seem to like the idea! I'll get crackalackin on my end to see what I can do.

Just for full disclosure's sake, here's my shortlist:Damo Mitchell --Not an occultist per se but a martial artist whose written several good books on alchemy and the esoteric aspects of martial artsJerry Alan Johnson -- A very experienced, from the looks of it, Daoist Magician.Andrieh Vitimis-- Chaos Magician, Vodou Hougan Asogwe

Cheers and Be Well

(Also, am I a Thelemite now? 93)

Edit:
I get it now. A tip of my hat to the mastermind behind that one. *Golf clap*

Edited by SilentSeeker, 16 November 2015 - 04:41 AM.

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

Edit:
I get it now. A tip of my hat to the mastermind behind that one. *Golf clap*

I don't know who inserted that little feature but technically, given the usual Thelemic shorthand greeting, your user title should probably say "Do what thou Wilt" for one 93. "Love under will" seems more appropriate if someone reaches 9393 posts.

Also, I think Ramsey Dukes, author of S.S.O.T.B.M.E., Thundersqueak, etc., would make for a cool interview. He started uploading some interesting video talks on youtube recently going over a lot of the topics he has come to be known for.

I can see if folks from the Voudon Gnostic current are open for interviews. I'm most intrigued about the idea of interviewing fellow OC members. When I have time later this afternoon I'll set up a thread for that purpose.

Cast Wide the Circle: Place for my musings and the occasional book review.The Art of Stealing Fire : My Online Magical Journal
Big mountain, wide river
There's an ancient pull
These tree trunks, these stream beds
Leave our bellies full
They sing out I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down
I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down

I'm very happy to report that Mr. Mitchell (of Lotus NeiGong and Scholar Sage) has replied to my inquiry and has been gracious enough to accept our invitation for an interview. For those who've yet to look over his site and become familiar with his work, he is a UK based martial artist who has written some good books on Daoist alchemy and the internal aspects of martial arts. His works are a part of my own practice and I, for one, feel confident in asserting their value to any occult practitioner new or experienced, martial artist or no. Furthermore, I've since come to find out since first flitting the idea about, that he has some measure of familiarity with Western methods as well which should be interesting, though he made mention in his reply to me that he has far greater experience in Eastern methods and so will be sharing his answers primarily through that particular prism of expertise.

I hope it will rub no one the wrong way if I were to reiterate my opinion that the information on Daoist based practices has run a bit dry on this forum as of late. I give such a criticism not to be harsh or combative but to emphasize the potentially great opportunity this is for our site. While I feel that any of the folks either I or others successfully reach out to will be a great boon for things here, I think it goes double for those guests who will deeper the wells of information in regard to those areas here that regretfully run relatively more shallow. Not only will it expand our appeal to a greater variety of practitioners but also strengthen this fine site's role as a beacon for those first coming on the path. It's only reasonable to assume that not everyone is called to walk the Western leg of the Way and so if we can provide more content for our Eastern oriented or Indigenously-based companions on the occult path: well then I'd say we'd be going a long way in keeping up the excellent standard this excellent site has maintained as a resource to occultists & mystics worldwide.

That all said, I'm hopeful that people of all paths and experience levels will provide questions as I'm sure this will be a very useful interview to all who get the chance to lay eyes upon it.

Curious Cat, on 16 November 2015 - 01:07 AM, said:

In the meantime, if anyone is interested in interviewing someone from the occult community, I think we could create a thread and pin it to a particular section of the forum.

I'm assuming by this quote Double C that you'll take care of the question thread. If not I can make one, no bigs.

Lastly, I want to let those whom are not members of this site know that if they have any potential questions, they can email me at sharinganneedle@yahoo.com and I will include them in the interview--provided of course they are serious and there is room. I can sympathize with the fact that some people have reasons for not joining the forum but may still want to participate so I want to extend the invitation out to you all as well. Please note, however, that should the # of questions become an issue then the guest questions will be the first to see the scissors. But also know I'll do my best to squeeze in as many as I can

I look forward to seeing your questions! For those looking for inspiration or a feel for this guest's expertise: here's an interview Damo held with the folks at thedaobums, of the same kind of format.

May this be the first of many exciting and informative interviews for the OC.

Cheers and Be Well

Edited by SilentSeeker, 21 November 2015 - 08:26 AM.

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

I'm assuming by this quote Double C that you'll take care of the question thread. If not I can make one, no bigs.

Thank you so much for putting this together. It would be fine if you put created the thread with the interview, in fact it would probably be best since this way the interview is the first post and people can comment about it in the posts below it.

I contacted Jason Miller (Inominandum) and he has accepted to grant us an interiew

Awesome! Immaculately done Whispy!

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

Cast Wide the Circle: Place for my musings and the occasional book review.The Art of Stealing Fire : My Online Magical Journal
Big mountain, wide river
There's an ancient pull
These tree trunks, these stream beds
Leave our bellies full
They sing out I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down
I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down

To echo his sentiments in his reply: 'Lets proceed, with the primary goal of really teaching life transforming information; '

Cheers and Be Well

Edited by SilentSeeker, 02 December 2015 - 02:20 AM.

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

With the queue of slated interviews soon to be all cleared out, it seemed like a good time to address a few things. Namely:

1) New Interviews w/ outside folks: Anyone else had any non-OC members they wanted to see interviewed? We've gotten some new, active members in the time since this idea was broached and so I thought maybe they'd like to weigh in with some suggestions.

2) OC Member Interviews: Once the above queue is cleared out proper, I plan to turn attention to this. Is there enough interest among members to do it w/ audio, possibly on a free blogtalk channel? Please let me know either via this thread or a PM. Also, any suggestions on how we should decide the first subject of the interview?

3)Andrieh Interview: So only one member has provided questions(danke CC) and so that leaves me in charge of filling in the remainder. That's cool and all, as I have piles and piles of questions which I'm just dying to ask. But while that's awesome for me and my curiosity, it seems rather selfish not to just make sure one last time if people didn't want to reconsider their silence and see if they did, in fact, have a question or two they wanted to put forward. Just asking as it seems to me that the interview may benefit a wider range of people if more experienced heads volleyed a few questions and gave things a more diverse flavor. Likely will begin getting to work on this on Monday, so give it a think over the weekend. It's up to you all, no worries either way.

Should anyone decide to be a dear and give a question or two, first off: thank you. Secondly, you may mosey on ova h'yah and post them.

Remember, non-members who have a question are free to email me at sharinganneedle@yahoo.com if they have any.

Cheers and Be Well

Edited by SilentSeeker, 04 March 2016 - 11:37 PM.

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
―Zhuangzi

The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own.

If you attempt to fix a picture to it in your mind, you will lose it.

This is like pinning a butterfly: the husk is captured, but the flying is lost.

Cast Wide the Circle: Place for my musings and the occasional book review.The Art of Stealing Fire : My Online Magical Journal
Big mountain, wide river
There's an ancient pull
These tree trunks, these stream beds
Leave our bellies full
They sing out I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down
I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down

Well I'm up for an interview and being interviewed perhaps we should start doing an OC member interview once a month or so?

Cast Wide the Circle: Place for my musings and the occasional book review.The Art of Stealing Fire : My Online Magical Journal
Big mountain, wide river
There's an ancient pull
These tree trunks, these stream beds
Leave our bellies full
They sing out I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down
I am going to stand my ground
You rise to me and I'll blow you down